This blog has nothing to do with gorillas (though I love 'em)...fellow bloggers have inspired me to share vintage images of Disneyland from my personal collection. But don't be surprised if you see something from a World's Fair, Knott's Berry Farm, or someplace else that is cool!

Tuesday, September 06, 2016

(Sorry, folks, I forgot to set the "publish" time to the usual 12:01 AM. If Chuck hadn't alerted me, it wouldn't have published until 9:30 tonight!!)

Let's take a look a a few more vintage snapshots!

As you can tell by the woman's bell-bottoms, this is the 70's - 1974 to be exact. It can get a little bit chilly in March, which explains the sweaters and jackets (that red coat is pretty cool). I wonder if the park had just opened... the long shadows indicate that it is morning, and there is a logjam on the drawbridge. Do people ever get trampled, like at a Who concert?!

Here's a ho-hum photo of Storybook Land's Cinderella Castle - but doesn't it look great surrounded by all of that lush green foliage?

Look at all of that colorful clothing! Reds, yellows and oranges dominate. I remember thinking that nobody would ever be nostalgic for the 70's, and now it all seems so fun and funky. That's what 40+ years will do, I suppose. Meanwhile, if a Matterhorn bobsled is visible in a photo of the mountain, I consider it a good omen. Note to self... buy a lottery ticket. I can't lose!

One or two times I thought I would be trampled at the gates of the Magic Kingdom, but it never actually happened. I did get kicked in the head by a kid being carried on someone's shoulder.

The little Asian boy in the blue coat and red shoes in the first picture gets an 11 out of 10 on the 70's Child Adorability Scale (70CAS). Weird to think he's a middle-aged man now, probably taking his own kids to Disneyland as we speak.

When I was in high school, I remember one afternoon early in the track season when those of us on the distance team were "running the ditch," which consisted of a long run along an elevated dirt access road that paralleled an irrigation ditch through town, past the high school tennis courts, and then on south into the Oklahoma countryside.

Three of us were running in a group, all of us wearing shades, and feeling pretty good about ourselves as only cocky young high school students can. As we ran past the tennis courts, we noticed that the girls' team was warming up for practice, and the most attractive girl on the team (and this was in a school filled with attractive girls) was on the court closest to the ditch.

As will happen with high school boys around pretty young women, three heads and six eyes were turned upon the fair maiden as she reached back to serve the ball. She caught movement in the corner of her eye as we ran past, looked up, and flashed us a high-wattage smile that must have browned out the power through half the county. We all goofily grinned back, practically floating in the realization that this goddess of the netted court had acknowledged our existence. I could have run ten miles on the power of that one smile alone.

It was at this point that one of my buddies ran head-on into a telephone pole.

“Bennett Cerf’s Big Book of Telephone Pole Jokes”. Now in e-book form!

My Grandma used to have "Bennett Cerf's Bumper Crop" on the book shelvess in one of her spare bedrooms. Whenever we got snowed in at her house I'd stay up late with it and have a good google. That's probably why my sense of humor is stalled in the middle of the last century.

Irene, I saw both of your comments. Thanks for that info. I won't kill the messenger, but I am in complete shock and disgust. That is really it for me. I will not be renewing my Knott's pass now. This is yet another piece of Knott's history that management will be just tossing aside. And they rebuilt many of those peek-ins just a few years ago and seemed to take care in recreating what had been there originally. It doesn't make sense. Why celebrate the 75th anniversary of Ghost Town if you are just going to go ruin it after the celebration. Very sad!